Locking in a fun day at Manitowoc escape room

Kurt Duzeski demonstrates how players find clues and keys to escape the first part of the escape room adventure game at What the Lock? Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Manitowoc. The Western-themed room pictured here is one of three escape rooms at What the Lock?.(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)Buy Photo

MANITOWOC - It's 1884 and you and your crew were thrown in the slammer for robbing a bank by the local sheriff. He's just left for dinner, and you have an hour to escape your cell, grab the loot and hit the road.

This is the theme behind one of three escape rooms that make up What the Lock?, a new entertainment venue on Washington Street in downtown Manitowoc.

"Escape rooms," a fairly new trend, are located throughout Wisconsin, the U.S. and worldwide.

Kurt and Tiffany Duzeski love participating in them and wanted to bring the fun home. An escape room is a physical adventure game in which players are locked in a room and have to use elements and clues in the room to solve a series of puzzles or complete missions to escape the room in a set amount of time.

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TIffany and Kurt Duzeski pose in the lobby of What the Lock? Tuesday, Feb. 13, in downtown Manitowoc. They took their love of games and puzzles and opened up the escape room business this past October.(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

"We see a lot if people going to Green Bay or Milwaukee to do them and thought this is something we could bring to Manitowoc," Kurt said. "As a younger person in Manitowoc, we want to see more things for younger people to do here in the community."

The Duzeskis have been long-time fans of board and video games, and Kurt said escape rooms are a fun extension of the strategies behind those games. They had been wanting to start their own business, so when the location at 1130 S. Washington St. opened up, they moved quickly.

The store opened in October, and people from as far away as South Korea, Australia, and Texas and Florida from within the U.S. have come to give the rooms a try. Many people travel from Milwaukee and Madison and other parts of Wisconsin to try the rooms.

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One of the escape rooms designed by the Duzeskis at What the Lock? Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Manitowoc.(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

What the Lock? has three escape rooms with different themes: the first is the "Outlaw" room, in which players are using clues to escape from jail with their stolen money. Part of the challenge is figuring out whether they want to continue searching for more loot, or use their time to figure out how to escape the room, Kurt said.

"It really is a bit of role-playing," he said. "We want people to feel like they really are in that scenario and what they would do in that situation."

The room contains jail bars and a locked cell door, a large safe, a desk, a stove and a table where a game of poker looks to be in mid-play. Visitors usually come in groups of about six, although any number is welcome. One of them is put in handcuffs, and part if the game is finding the key to release their partner.

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A view of the Western-themed escape room from inside the jail cell where guests start their adventure game Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Manitowoc. The Duzeskis personally design the rooms and come up with the escape routes.(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

Games involve both engineering or physical games, such as finding a pole to reach keys, and mental puzzles, such as solving a riddle.

Overall, about 15 to 30 percent of people will solve escape rooms in the given time, Kurt said. The idea is to get people to get just about to the end. Make it too easy, and they will breeze through. Make it too tough, and they won't have fun.

As people are going through the room, Kurt and Tiffany watch them via camera, and they are never locked into rooms. Groups are allowed three clues, which come via a closed-circuit TV.

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A map hanging by the entrance displays where What the Lock? patrons have traveled from Tuesday, Feb. 13, in Manitowoc. The escape room business has had visitors from all over the world.(Photo: Josh Clark/USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin)

"It's about time management," Tiffany said. "You are using your mental abilities. You are working with your friends and family to succeed. There's just so many good qualities about it."